1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer systems and, more particularly, to card readers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years the electronics marketplace has seen a proliferation of appliances and personal electronics devices that use solid-state memory. For example, traditional film cameras have been losing market share to digital cameras capable of recording images that may be directly downloaded to and stored on personal computers (PCs). The pictures recorded by digital cameras can easily be converted to common graphics file formats such as Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) or Bitmap (BMP), and sent as e-mail attachments or posted on web pages and online photo albums. Many digital cameras are also capable of capturing short video clips in standard digital video formats, for example Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), which may also be directly downloaded and stored on personal computers (PCs) or notebook computers. Other devices that typically use solid-state memory include personal digital assistants (PDAs), pocket PCs, video game consoles and Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio (MP3) players.
The most widely used solid-state memory devices include flash-memory chips configured on a small removable memory card, and are commonly referred to as flash-memory cards. The majority of flash-memory cards currently on the market are typically one of: Compact Flash™, MultiMediaMemory™ memory card (MMC) and the related Secure Digital Memory card (SD), SmartMedia™ memory card (SM), xD Picture Cards™ (xD), and Memory Stick™. Most digital cameras, for example, use Compact Flash™ memory cards to record images. Many PDA models use Memory Stick™ memory cards to hold data. Some MP3 players store music files on SM memory cards. Generally, data saved by PDAs and other handheld devices using flash-memory cards are also transferred or downloaded to a PC. In the present application, the term “flash-memory” is intended to have the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, which generally encompasses various types of non-volatile solid-state memory devices.
Typically, a flash-memory card can easily be removed from the utilizing device. For example, a Compact Flash™ memory card can be removed from a digital camera much like film is removed from a standard camera. The flash-memory card can then be inserted into an appropriate flash-memory card reader hooked up to a PC, and the image files directly copied to the PC. It should be noted that while a majority of smaller hand-held computers and PDAs have slots that receive Compact Flash™ memory cards, most PCs do not, hence the need for a flash-memory card reader connecting to the PC. Most recently the preferred interface between flash-memory card readers and PCs has been the Universal Serial Bus (USB), where the flash-memory card reader is connected to a USB port on the PC via a USB cable. Portable computer or notebook PCs typically also have PC-memory card (earlier known as Personal Computer Memory card International Association; PCMCIA) slots that can receive PCMCIA memory cards configured as flash-memory card readers.
In all, the many different memory card formats present a wide array of interface requirements not only for PCs but for other digital systems as well, such as embedded systems. Different adapters are needed for each of the memory card formats. One solution to consolidate the interfacing of flash-memory cards to desktop and portable computer PCs has been the design and manufacture of multi-format flash-memory card readers that are capable of reading the most popular formats. Such memory card-readers are sometimes referred to as ‘Seven-in-one’ readers indicating that they may be used with the currently popular flash-memory card formats. As indicated above, such multi-format card readers are typically designed with a USB interface. USB based systems require that a USB host controller be present in the host system, and that the operating system (OS) of the host system support USB and USB Mass Storage Class Devices. In addition, screen icons and text for these card readers do not indicate what type of card is currently in the card reader.